Health & Beauty

If you’ve ever had a dental filling, chances are you’ve got some mercury in your mouth. Those so-called silver fillings are a mixture of liquid elemental mercury and powdered silver, tin, copper, and other trace metals that hardens into a solid material that dentists have considered an excellent solution for cavities for more than a century. But concern has been growing as to the safety of these fillings, with some experts citing dental mercury’s dangers, especially to the kidneys and the nervous system.

Jessica Nutik Zitter, M.D., is an attending physician at Alameda Health System’s Highland Hospital in Oakland and specializes in palliative care. But to the world she’s known as an expert on the one thing that most people don’t want to think about: death.

Berkeley graphic designer Jessica Greenwalt, 28, was worried about mounting pains in her wrist and shoulder from hunching over a tablet all day. When she heard about standing desks, she thought she might have found a solution. To start, she created a makeshift standing desk; in June, she switched to a convertible standing and sitting desk. She noticed that standing made her more alert at work, but also helped diminish her pain and stave off early warning signs of carpal tunnel syndrome.

As residents of the East Bay, we not only live in a beautiful and diverse area, but we also have access to some of the nation’s top-ranked physicians. Yet even drawing from a large pool of talented and experienced medical professionals, finding a doctor who takes your specific insurance plan, has the right qualifications, and offers a good bedside manner can prove to be a challenge.

Jessica Nutik Zitter, M.D., is an attending physician at Alameda Health System’s Highland Hospital in Oakland and specializes in palliative care. But to the world she’s known as an expert on the one thing that most people don’t want to think about: death.